HOME | Abstemius: Previous Page - Next Page

DE MURE IN CISTA NATO

Source: Abstemius 1 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

Latin Text:

Mus in cista natus, omnem fere ibi duxerat aetatem, nucibus pastus, quae in ea servari solebant. Dum autem circa oras cistae ludens decidisset quaereretque ascensum, reperit epulas lautissime paratas, quas cum gustare coepisset, "Quam stultus (inquit) hactenus fui, qui in toto terrarum orbe nihil melius cistula mea esse credebam. Ecce quam suavioribus hic vescor cibis." Haec fabula indicat non ita patriam diligendam si ignobilis sit, ut alia non adeamus loca, cum alibi beatiores esse possimus.

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

Mus

in cista natus,

omnem fere ibi duxerat aetatem,

nucibus pastus,

quae in ea servari solebant.

Dum autem

circa oras cistae ludens

decidisset

quaereretque ascensum,

reperit epulas lautissime paratas,

quas cum gustare coepisset,

"Quam stultus (inquit) hactenus fui,

qui in toto terrarum orbe

nihil melius cistula mea esse credebam.

Ecce

quam suavioribus hic vescor cibis."

Haec fabula indicat

non ita patriam diligendam

si ignobilis sit,

ut alia non adeamus loca,

cum alibi beatiores esse possimus.

Translation: A mouse was born in a box, and had spent practically all of its life there, feeding on the nuts which were accustomed to be kept in the box. When, however, it played around the edge of the box, it fell down. As the mouse was seeking a way back up, it found a lavishly prepared banquet. When it started to eat, the mouse said, "How stupid I have been up till now! I believed that in the whold world there was nothing better than my little box. But look: how much sweeter foods I am eating here!" This fable shows that our homeland should not be so great loved, humble as it is, with the result that we don't go to other places, when we might be happier elsewhere.

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. here is L'Estrange's translation:

A Mouse that was bred in a Chest, and had liv'd all her Days there upon what the Dame of the House laid up in't, happen'd one time to drop out over the Side, and to stumble upon a very delicious Morsel, as she was hunting up and down to find her way in again. She had no sooner the Taste of it in her Mouth, but she brake out into Exclamations, what a Fool she had been thus long, to persuade herself that there was no Happiness in the World but in that Box.

A contented Mind and a good Conscience will make a Body happy where-ever he is.